Arrowhead Pride
The Buffalo Bills were understandably excited after their regular-season championship win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 9 — so much so that rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston couldn’t wait to tell reporters some of the secrets of their success.
“[It was] finding a difference in his posture and his effort, for real — when he knows he’s not getting it, when it’s a run,” Hairston said of Kansas City wide receiver Xavier Worthy, per Taylor Dunne of Go Long. “So [I was] just applying what I saw from the film room and taking it out to the field.
“There are ‘tells’ that everybody gives. It’s just about finding it.”
The timing of Hairston’s remarks was a little odd. These kinds of things are usually reserved for after the season is over — or kept in-house. This is especially true when the teams might meet again in the postseason.
But hey… why keep a strategic advantage under wraps — allowing you to exploit it again — when you can tell the whole world about it?
The Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes appreciated the tip.
“I didn’t necessarily see it,” he said of Worthy’s ‘tell’ on Wednesday, “but I mean, obviously, if he said it, he saw something. We’ll be better [by] at looking at things like that.”
But the quarterback couldn’t resist going for a laugh, either.
“I appreciate the info,” he grinned, “so that we can be better at that as the season goes on.”
This isn’t exactly an Earth-shaking revelation, after all. If you’ve ever watched “Rounders” with Matt Damon and Edward Norton — or played any poker — you already know every human being has a “tell” — something in their body language that provides a clue to their thinking.
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid has apparently seen the movie — or played some poker.
“Everybody’s got a tendency somewhere along the line,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s how it works. If you watch enough tape, you’re gonna see certain things.”
For this reason, noted Reid, “tells” can be used for deception, too — the old zig-when-they-expect-you-to-zag switcheroo. So in the wake of Hairston’s revelation, teams will be scouring tape to see what he found — and Reid will be thinking of a way to use it as a rope-a-dope.
“We look at all that,” he explained, “and keep trying to keep track of that. We ask players to do the same thing.”
Normally, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s unit would be responsible for noting these kinds of things about the team’s offensive players.
“I don’t know if anybody ever discovered it,” he admitted of Worthy’s “tell” on Thursday. “But our guys — you know, like the back-end guys — are always studying wideout stances, how they align, how close are they to the numbers, et cetera. And if you can find something to hang your hat on, you do.”
Still, Spagnuolo says it’s hard to find useful information.
“I think coaches are smart...
